tricks

Act 4.4 lines 145-155
I noticed that this family continues to play "tricks" on each other (intending to deceive each other as a test to the character/morals of the other). Yet, all of this tricks are a form of the tricker's confirmation bias. For example, Vindice's "trick" showed that his sister is chaste. Yet, when his mother proved to be disloyal Vindice and Hippolito wanted to create a self-fulfilling prophecy for themselves as a hero/saver of her soul. Therefore they "saved" her by taking the evil out of her.... Perhaps the "evil was being cried out of her" because they had two daggers pointed at her breast! Yet the brothers only saw the evidence that they wanted to see in that they saved the day. Then later, Castiza decides to "trick" her mother. Why would you ever want to convince someone, who's trying to convince you to do something that you don't want to do, that you now want to do it!? Of course at this point her mother has "cried the evil out" and is changed. However, there probably is some underlying feelings of truth in Castiza's words and somewhere inside of her she is probably tempted by the Duke's son offer. Or else, she probably would have never brought the issue up to her mother in the first place.
Yet, Castiza makes an opposing view to Vindice's (in an earlier act). Vindice blamed women and money for all of men's sins. However, in Castiza's statement, she makes a point that men are the instigators to alter women and that if women are virtuous the men's words could have no power over them. This puts the blame on both men and women for losing women's chastity. Men hold the power of words, yet women hold the power of their virtue.